Arashikage, the Shadow of the Storm
by The Shadow of the Storm
Summary: Naruto had the potential to be great from the start, better late than never. Naruto will learn what it means to truly be a great shinobi and the fine line one tows in times of war. Set just after the second exam Naruto begins his journey to becoming Arashikage, the Shadow of the Storm


**I do not own Naruto (obviously).**

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Chapter 1: The Drizzle

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Naruto sat nervously waiting for his sensei. He had done some research on Jiraiya the Sannin and was utterly shocked to learn that the man was not only one of the strongest shinobi to have ever existed but had been trained by the old man and had in turn trained the Fourth Hokage. In that moment Naruto had realized the although Jiraiya may had been the biggest pervert and weirdo in the world but he was also doing Naruto a favor by giving him the time of day, let alone training him for the chūnin exams. Naruto speculated that if he really dedicated himself and worked hard this could very well be the real first step to being Hokage.

"Alright gaki, let's get a couple things straight." Naruto was snapped out of his thoughts as his new temporary sensei walked up to him, a stick of dango halfway done in his hands. "From this moment on, your ass is mine. I don't care if you're as sick as a dog or in bed with Tsunade; when I call, you come. I tell you ass to move the Hokage monument to the other side of town, you don't ask me how you just do it. When I say jump, you jump, and you better know how high. Understood?"

Naruto nodded silently afraid to answer the man who just yesterday was very laid back, "H-Hai sensei."

Jiraiya gave a single nod in recognition, "Good, now tell me everything you know: jutsus, taijutsus styles, books you've read, everything and anything that pertains to being a shinobi. I also need to know your eating habits, training methods, and general day to day habits, hobbies, and tendencies."

Naruto quickly began to regurgitate everything and anything that came to mind. The more that came out of Naruto's the more Jiraiya frowned and the more Naruto came to realize that the picture he was painting wasn't pretty and even more distressing was the fact that it was all fact. By the time Naruto had finished Naruto realized that the person Naruto had described had no hope of ever becoming a Hokage, hell he would be surprised if he ever made Jōnin.

"Well kid, you're fucking useless. I'm starting to question how you every even made it to genin. Your jutsu list is unacceptably short and is lacking genjutsus, you have no taijutsu style and I'd be surprised if you've read more than two books," Jiraiya said, "add to the fact that you are grossly underweight and are abnormally short for age, caused by lack of a healthy diet, tells me that you are basically a waste of space. You're cannon fodder kid. A faceless shinobi that will die and be forgotten before his body even begins to decompose."

Naruto hung his head and fought to keep the tears in. He thought he had built a tough exterior, toughened through the years of being hated by almost every person he had ever met but it had crumbled as if made of sand within seconds. He had hoped that Jiraiya would be able to help him but apparently he was a lost cause.

Jiraiya looked down at Naruto with no remorse. He wasn't going to sugar coat it for the boy and just from observing the boy for the short time he had been in Konoha for the chūnin exams he knew that the boy was unjustifiably cocky and prideful and Jiraiya had decided that the first thing he was going to show the boy was a lesson in humility. "_Despite_ all these things, you have one thing going for you kid," Jiraiya said as he finished off his dango, "and that is that you have me as your sensei as of now."

Naruto looked up shocked to hear that the man still wanted to train him. Naruto smiled brightly to Jiraiya; infinitely thankful that the man would train him despite all his shortcomings, "Hai, thank you sensei," Naruto murmured he bowed low to the ground, his forehead touching the dirt.

"Whatever gaki. Now get up and let me get a look at that seal," Jiraiya stated.

Naruto looked at Jiraiya scared for a moment, "How do you know about─"

"The fox?" Jiraiya finished for him, "I know because I trained the Fourth Hokage and knew about him sealing the fox in you from the moment he did it. Now get up and let me see the seal."

Naruto quickly stood up and forced chakra into his seal. He frowned when he noticed another seal on top of it that hadn't been there before. Jiraiya frowned as well when he saw the other seal before channeling chakra into his fingertips and slamming his hand onto the seal. Naruto felt the wind rush out of his lungs and began to give dry heaves as he tried to regain his breath and keep from vomiting at the same time.

"Now that that's taken care of we can begin training. You mentioned to me that you knew the shadow clone jutsu before," Naruto nodded as he slowly and painfully stood up. "Good then we can do several months if not years of training within this month instead of just a month."

"How?" Naruto asked confused.

"How? What do you mean how?" Jiraiya asked confused as he frowned, "Shadow clones transfer any and all information gained back to you. How do you not know that? Not five minutes ago you were telling me that it was your signature jutsu!"

"Oh," Naruto had the decency to blush in embarrassment, "I guess I just never noticed. I only use shadow clones in battle so I guess with all the adrenaline rushing, I never noticed."

"Well know you know kid. How many can you make?" Jiraiya asked.

"Close to a thousand but if you want them to last through the day while still being able to do a decent amount of jutsus I would have to say a couple hundred," Naruto said as he scratched the back of his neck.

"Good, we'll get years of training in then," Jiraiya said, "make a hundred."

Naruto quickly created the clones and watched as Jiraiya made ten and then broke his clones into groups of ten. Naruto watch curiously as the Jiraiya clones led all their groups away from the training field leaving only Jiraiya and Naruto.

"Alright kid, the only thing a clone cannot do is physical training. You can teach them how to punch and kick but it'll be up to you, yourself, to gain the muscle to do damage. As of now you only eat what is on this list, it has your meal plans as well as shopping list," Jiraiya said handing him a scroll.

Naruto opened the scroll and looked down the list, he groaned when he saw that he was only allowed to have ramen on Tuesday nights and only one bowl. He frowned when he saw the meals and shopping list, "Uh, I don't know how to cook…and I don't think I'll be able to get some of this stuff. Most shops throw me out because of my fox problem."

Jiraiya frowned when he heard this, "Make two clones," he said as he himself made two. The clones quickly paired off and ran off in different directions, "One will take care of the shopping and the other will get started on cooking lessons while we take care of our own stuff. Now tell me this is not the only clothes you own."

Naruto laughed nervously.

* * *

"Ok so I get that I can't wear an orange track suit but why can't I wear orange at all again?" Naruto asked as they made their way through town. Jiraiya had been right pissed when he learned that Naruto owned three sets of the same orange tack track suit.

"Because gaki," Jiraiya exasperated, "a true ninja hides, he blends. Orange is the opposite of blending. We'll get some proper clothes and then we'll start training. I think I might have a way to use your massive chakra reserves to use as far as strength goes."

Naruto nodded happily, no longer upset about having to burn his track suit. They walked silently into the shinobi goods store and Naruto immediately went off to look through the clothes, he figured it would take a while to find something as awesome as his orange track suit.

Jiraiya instead went directly to the counter instead and spoke quietly to the girl behind the counter who had initially glared at Naruto when he entered. "Do you have a problem with my charge young lady?" Jiraiya asked sternly.

The girls expression immediately changed when she noticed a Sannin had been talking about Naruto, "N-no Jiraiya-sama."

"Good," Jiraiya said with a soft smile that never reached his eyes, "because he is my apprentice and I would hate to have a reason to shut down this shop. Now I do expect that the boy will be treated like any other customer?"

"Better Jiraiya-sama," the girl said as she quickly moved over to Naruto with a warm smile and greeted him, "welcome to my shop may I help you find something?"

"Huh?" Naruto said quite dumbly before he quickly recomposed himself and nervously scratched the back of his neck, "Oh, uh, well I was looking for a new set of shinobi clothing. Orange really isn't a ninja color," he laughed softly.

"Very true shinobi-san," the girl said with a smile before she led him over a couple racks, "if I may, shinobi-san, recommend these clothes. They are our latest additions, from the land of Iron. Unfortunately we only carry these and two more sets, as they were left here from a merchant passing through. I could make altercations on them to fit you at no extra charge with the purchase of the other two."

Naruto looked at the clothes and then turned to Jiraiya, "What do you think Jiraiya-sensei?"

Jiraiya gazed down at the clothes, they were good but were a blaring white which would never do here in Konoha or any of the other regions except maybe the land of snow, "they're good but you'll need to dye them, white is as bad as orange right now," he turned to the girl, "dye them a deep gray, not black but a very deep grey. You can do the accents black as well as the gloves and boots. Hold off on the alterations as well, we'll be picking up the clothes in about a month so we'll be back then to take the proper measurements. Put it on my tab and keep it open, we're going to keep looking." The girl nodded and left taking the clothes with her.

Naruto turned to follow Jiraiya to the tools and weapons section. He watched as Jiraiya methodically went through the items, "Alright kid, I noticed that your set of shuriken and kunai are very roughed up and very generic. The first thing you need to know that every shinobi is different so their equipment should be different. What might work for your teammates and team sensei, may not work for you. They may prefer kunai and shuriken, you may be better at sebon needles. Regardless of your preference you should also know that there are different weight, size and materials you can get your tools in. Deciding what weight, size and material to get your weapons will to relevant to your abilities as well as compliment them," Jiraiya said as he held up a kunai, "This kunai for example is made out of Iron, weighs about 5 ounces and has a 6" blade. Now if I had say a lightening affinity then the material would be perfect, iron is high conductible, now if I have a habit of throwing these babies then the size and weight if perfect but I use these in hand to hand then I am at a disadvantage."

"How?" Naruto asked.

"Well first things first, the weight is too light," Jiraiya said as he tossed the bade up, "the blade needs to heavier to be used in hand to hand, this thing will break if it meets another kunai, let alone a sword. Another thing is length, you would want 8in at least, and your sensei uses a 12in blade himself.

"Now continuing on that train, if I was a water affinity the material would be completely wrong for me, iron oxidizes too easily. Steel would probably be better but not by much. I would actually recommend switching to wooden sebon needles completely. Length and weight would depend on wood type and preference again but that is a given, there are metal sebon needles but we'll get to that later" Jiraiya said as he placed the kunai back into its place.

"You will be switching to sebon needles, regardless of your affinity," Jiraiya said as he picked up a sebon needle and handed it to Naruto. Naruto examined the sebon needle in his weight before he tossed it into a target that was hanging on the wall. There was a sudden shriek as the counter girl had been coming out of the back room at that very moment and the target happened to be posted next to the door.

"Sorry!" Naruto yelled.

* * *

Naruto trudged his way home from the training field barely aware of the people around him. After they had finished picking up his new supplies which consisted of sebon needle, a pair of wakizashi (Jiraiya said that as he grew taller he would then get katanas), a chain and knife and a first aid kit, they had gotten straight to training. Naruto learned within moments that Jiraiya was a slave driver when it came to training. The man hadn't even pulled punches when they had sparred. Jiraiya said that if he didn't feel the full pain that he wouldn't learn, Naruto thought the man just wanted a reason punch him as hard as he could.

They had tried Jiraiya's at increasing his strength but were disappointed when they learned that Naruto's chakra control was horrendous so they made another set of clones to go take care of that problem. Jiraiya had made it very clear that if he didn't get his chakra control near perfect by the end of the second week that Naruto would have to fend for himself. Needless to say Naruto was still working on that as after they had dispelled all their clones he had made another fifty to go train in control all night. Hopefully there would be progress in the morning.

Speaking of clones, he had learned a lot today and it was slightly disorientating to have lived about 112 full days at once. Thankfully the fatigue didn't transfer over otherwise he probably would have collapsed immediately. The headache was enough of a pain as it was. Ten had gone off the library to study; apparently reading was important to becoming a good shinobi, go figure. Each clone had picked up a different subject and got to work. The comforting thing about clones is that they stayed on task, unlike himself.

Another set of clones had gotten to work on improving the jutsus he already knew. He hadn't noticed it before but Jiraiya hadn't used hand seals the clones and Jiraiya was adamant that Naruto learn the skill as well. Ten others were also working on learning a new jutsu. Jiraiya had stated that it had been the Fourth's signature jutsu along with the Hiraishin jutsu (which Naruto was surprised to learn was created by the Second not the Fourth Hokage), so Naruto was plenty excited to learnt the rasengan. Another set of clones were beginning to learn the basic to the Hiraishin, Jiraiya had deemed that Naruto had enough chakra is spades to safely learn it but had warned him against using it unless it was an absolute emergency. Much like the rasengan and the strength technique Jiraiya had spoken about, the Hiraishin require precise control that Naruto just didn't have. So he was leaning to the body flicker jutsu for now.

Several clones were learning seals, which surprisingly Naruto had a knack for. His clones had blown through the beginners' seals and were now working on the intermediate set. Naruto smiled when he remember that Jiraiya had given him his first compliment after completing the beginners set, sure it had been from the clone but hey, he would take what he could get.

A set of thirty had been sent to learn katas for three new taijutsu styles that were the basis for another style that, in tangent with the strength technique would become his style. Jiraiya had stated that he had hoped to complete the style when he was teaching Minato but had at the time not perfected the strength technique and Tsunade had been unwilling to give details on her technique. Now that he had both he would be able to fully unlock the power of what Jiraiya had now named after his dead student, the God Fist. Both Naruto and Jiraiya thought it sounded awesome.

The rest had been doing this and that: increasing his reflexes, leaning tactics, basic survival, weapon training and of course the art of seduction as Jiraiya had declared it necessary. Why, Naruto had no fucking clue.

Entering his apartment saw that dinner had already been set by his clone and that the meals for the next week had been carefully packaged and refrigerated. After basically inhaling the food down and taking a quick shower Naruto collapsed onto his bed. He was out within seconds.

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─Two weeks later –

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Naruto stood before Jiraiya silently, his blade held in both hand before him, the fingerless gloves felt odd on his hands but it helped keep the blade from slipping between his sweaty palms. Jiraiya had instructed him in the finer points of kenjutsu, having shown him the simple but reflex and agility dominated style he had taught Minato. Naruto was very far from being on the Fourth's level but he was doing beyond acceptable for a genin on the verge of becoming a chūnin. If Jiraiya had to estimate he would place Naruto's kenjutsu level around mid to high chūnin and they would remain that way until he got battle experience, which despite Jiraiya's policy of not pulling punches he could really simulate. Despite everything he could do, he would never be able to give that back-against-the-wall-live-or-die feeling to Naruto because deep down Naruto knew he wouldn't kill him. Knock him the fuck out? Yes. But kill him? No. The same could be said about his taijutsu level. Mid to high chūnin but he would need to learn the strength technique to truly take his taijutsu to the next level. They were going to work on that as soon as this training spar was over.

Naruto ducked under Jiraiya blade and shot out his own swipe at Jiraiya's ribcage, which of course missed the man by maybe an inch but as Jiraiya had stated, if you miss by inch it's the same as if you missed by a mile, there was no damage to show for your efforts.

"Make every swipe count gaki, if you're going to swing that blade of yours it better hit me otherwise don't bother wasting the energy," Jiraiya said as he brought the blade back down for an overhead chop. Naruto rolled to the left and made swipe for Jiraiya's inner thigh. It struck true as he heard a slight grunt but was shocked when he noticed the blade of Jiraiya less than a centimeter from his jugular, "and always be on the rebound. Just because you struck me doesn't mean the battle is over, understand?"

Naruto was afraid to nod so he gave a quiet 'yes' and sighed in relief when Jiraiya place the blade back in its sheathe before sheathing his own blade. Naruto readjusted his gloves, never taking his eyes from Jiraiya; he had been knocked out enough times to know that it was a poor choice to do so.

"Alright gaki it's now or never," Jiraiya said as he walked calmly to the river. "Show me you can do it." Naruto nervously removed his he shirt and his gloves before calmly walking over the water. "So far so good gaki…"

The water walking had taken him a while but it was the next part that Naruto was worried, despite putting hundreds of clone to do it every night he had been unable for the most part to do the next part. Last night he had barely been able to pull it off for only a moment, now he had to do this for a full five minutes. Naruto walked out to the middle of the lake. He came to a stop and slowly taking a deep breath and closed his eyes. He stood on the water stock still for a moment clearing his head.

"Any day gaki, I think I hear the hot springs calling my name…," Jiraiya said as he leaned against the tree beside him.

Naruto took out two sebon needles, one in each hand and breathed deeply, "Well, it's now or never," he murmured to himself. He gently channeled his chakra into the needle and put both points to the water. Ever so slowly he began to lean his weight against it until he began to lift his entire body off the water. Much like a gymnast he lifted his body vertically slowly until his was perfectly vertical. He then slowly moved his right hand away from the water and balanced precariously on his left, his hand tightly gripping the sebon needle. Then almost impossibly he placed his index finger onto the opposite point and lifted himself higher. Then…the time began.

Jiraiya watched quite utterly shocked. He was a bit reluctant when he had seen Naruto pull out two needles but once he saw that it was just for the initial balance he let it pass. Now watching the boy balance on a single finger, on a sebon, in the middle of the lake…well he was flabbergasted. He would have been ok with him just holding it for a minute but as the seconds then minutes ticked by Jiraiya began to smile.

Naruto was sweating up a river yet he still kept his balance. Random thoughts and movements out of his peripheral vision tried to distract him but he concentrated, this was it. This was the moment that would define the rest of his life. Naruto visualized this moment as if a road that split two ways. One to the grave, to be forgotten through time and the other were he became immortalized in tales of heroics, as one of the greatest shinobi and Hokages to have ever exist.

"Times up gaki," Jiraiya suddenly said.

"WAH!"

_SPLASH!_

After a moment Naruto broke surface and looked at Jiraiya upset, "Why'd you have to do that?!"

"Because I felt like it," Jiraiya said as he helped Naruto up to the surface, "come. On account of your success I think a celebration is in order," he said with an easy smile.

* * *

The 'celebration' turned out to be a trip to the ramen stand and a couple bowls of ramen. Naruto had complained the whole way back to the training fields about getting only two bowls of ramen but quickly shut up when Jiraiya worked him so hard he threw up. Jiraiya had needlessly pointed out that if he had bought any more, it would have just been a waste of money.

Now with only a few days left before the exam he was fitted out in his new clothes and stretching. Jiraiya had stated that he was going to be out of the village for the next week and wouldn't be able to train him so he had decided that he would get his 'final exam' spar in now and give him the days leading up to the exam to relax and gather himself. Jiraiya had wanted to make sure that Naruto would be able to use everything he learned together in a fight. He did well enough when sparring only in kenjutsu, taijutsu or ninjutsu but he had yet to be tested using all three together.

"How's that one handed rasengan coming along?" Jiraiya asked as he himself prepared himself for battle, pulling off his overcoat and cracking his neck.

"Got it down about two days ago," Naruto said with a small smile as pulled of his coat and began to tape his hands, "a lot harder than I thought it would be to do it with gloves on."

"Yea it'll get easier," Jiraiya readjusted his arm guards on and stepped out onto the field. "Now remember I don't want you to even attempt the Hiraishin, you're not ready for it. Stick the body flicker and you'll do fine," Jiraiya reiterated.

"Yea, yea I got it the first time," Naruto grumbled as he walked out onto the field to where his one of his wakizashi was sticking out of the ground. Smiling Naruto pulled on his gloves and quickly pulled the sword out of the ground. With a quick few slashes he settled into a battle pose.

"You're going to start off on kenjutsu?" Jiraiya asked a bit confused by his choice. "You sure that's how you want to start?"

Naruto simply smirked before he body flickered.

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Jiraiya and Naruto looked out onto the destroyed training field the rain pouring down heavily and lightning streaked across the sky, a side effect to the jutsus Naruto had used. Jiraiya had been shocked when Naruto had brought not only elemental jutsu into the fight but three different elements. Jiraiya had tried to teach the both elemental jutsus but it had turned out that Naruto had affinities to elements the exact opposite of Jiraiya. While Jiraiya had strong affinities to fire and earth, Naruto had an extremely high affinity to wind and water. The real surprise had been lightning. Apparently Naruto had worked himself to the bone to amplify his small affinity to lightning which Jiraiya had stated wasn't worth the time at the moment to really delve into. Where he had found a lightning user or scroll in Konoha Jiraiya didn't know because right behind wind, lightning was the rarest affinity in Konoha with only 8 known users; wind which had a grand total of one, Asuma Sarutobi, son to the third Hokage.

"Do you think I'll win sensei?" Naruto asked suddenly breaking the silence

"Well kid you're not exactly Jōnin material just yet but you are definitely chūnin material," Jiraiya said as he wiped his own blade clean before carefully sheathing it. "However, you have a lot to learn. The strength technique is far from mastered, you kenjutsu is nowhere near seven swordsmen worthy, your jutsus, though powerful enough, need a little more tweaking and you need more of them and, your taijutsu still begs for more. Not to mention you still suck at genjutsus"

Naruto just softly smiled at Jiraiya's criticism, after hearing it literally hundreds of times a day, he grew to read beneath it and find the compliments he was throwing at him despite all the bad.

"But I'll admit, I've never met anyone like you gaki," Jiraiya said suddenly. Naruto turned to Jiraiya surprised but Jiraiya just gazed off into the rain, a far off look in his eyes. "Not even the fourth could soak up information and training like you kid. You've got it kid; I don't know what _it_ is exactly kid but whatever it is you have a lot of it. You have the potential to surpass everyone before you kid. Not even the Fourth had what you have kid and look and what he became."

"He had a great teacher," Naruto said quietly. Admiration is his eyes as he gazed at Jiraiya, he was so grateful for what the man had taught him and he only hoped that maybe after all this was said and done and he made it to chūnin, Jiraiya would take him on as a full apprentice.

"Nah, teachers they can only point you down the right road kid, it's all you Naruto," Jiraiya said as he turned to Naruto and held his gaze, "you'll be great whether I had chosen train you or not kid. You were always meant for greater things, the only claim I can make to your success kid is that I was there in the beginning. I'll be only known as Jiraiya, teacher of legends: The Yellow Flash and…," he turned to Naruto and gazed at him as he gazed out to the storm under the tree, "Arashikage…the shadow of the storm."

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**I realize there are several grammatical mistakes throughout the story whether it being a poorly worded sentence or a word out of place. At the current moment I do not have an editor so a Beta would be greatly appreciated. ****Rather than write a complete review on it please inbox me on the mistake and I will correct it ASAP.**

**I can't tell you when the next chapter will be out, as I write on an inspirations' notice and it comes and goes. I do however have the final picture written out (the final chapter in essence), it's the journey that still needs to be figured out.**

**Yes I am keenly aware that I skipped over fox chakra training as well as the summoning contract but I thought I would save those for later, I have a special plan in mind for those.**

**As of this moment I do not have a set pairing, there is a poll to decide which girl he should be paired with, any and all girls from the Naruto universe are open to be paired. I will not do a complete harem (it's stupid and impossible to write a story with a harem in it because you then shift the focus from Naruto and his journey to 'lets have Naruto group up with a large group of women who are somehow impossible ok with it and are banging every other chapter' kind of story and though a bit entertaining a first they get repetitive) but I will allow him to be paired with two if my audience makes it close to call and are ok with it.  
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**If you're wondering what Naruto's outfit looks like, go to my profile, there will be a link to an image and just imagine it dark grey with black accents (it will change later on) and with a hood it.**

**Thank you for reading and please review**


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